Reporting by Ling Ma-Deo, for
Coruscant Life
In a newly-constructed hotel in the west region of Coruscant's ecumonopolis, Sara Vosh sits on a couch across from me.
She's just a day away from letting go of the music she's held closely to her chest for months, and this week has put her in front of millions of viewers. To say that she's been busy is an understatement, but she doesn't look haggard.
Instead, everything about her appearance today seems burnished to appeal to the masses, from her brightly bleached hair to the gemstones glinting off her purple dress. Her lips give way to a trepidatious smile as we settle into the interview.
In person, she's hardly the exuberant, whiskey-downing diva she portrays in "Another Bar Somewhere Real Far", the first single to hit subspace radio this week. When I ask her if she's nervous to be on a planet as bustling as Coruscant, she gives me an adamant shake of her head.
"Oh, no, I'm really comfortable anywhere in the Core. I grew up on Chandrila - in a really small town. Very small. But there are so many big cities, too, and so many different influences. You get used to traveling to different places when you're making music, so I'm just comfy wherever I end up."
But one of those places she "ended up" was in the Outer Rim on Jabiim, hoping to get a chance to perform her music live in the planet's well-known entertainment district. She spent a year on that world, living in a tiny apartment writing songs and sending out demos to different record companies using her own credits - all to no avail.
"It was really frustrating," Vosh concedes with an exasperated laugh. "I think people didn't really know what to make of me. I was thinking of what it meant to be almost thirty as a single woman, trying to put together an album about what that's like, and essentially competing against other young women, who were just as talented."
That all changed, she says, when she met the powerful figures behind CrimsonStar Recordings, who have driven Jabiim's economy for years with entertainment deals that run the gamut, putting artists on stages in casinos, bars, and even restaurants, offering fans the chance to follow these upcoming acts as they bounce from the Outer Rim through to the Core worlds.
"They listened to a few songs, and liked those, and then before I knew it, we were in meetings talking about an album," Vosh explains. "It was like the door had finally opened, and I could just sing about what I was feeling."
As we talk about that album - which Vosh says she aptly named Low - I ask her what people of the galaxy should expect from it. Brown eyes, earnest behind shimmery red eyeshadow that glistens as she shifts in her seat, roll up to the ceiling of the hotel room before she gives another reticent smile.
"It's a very dynamic album. I think there are things lots of people can relate to - a lot of breakups, a lot of lessons that I learned - but a lot of love, too. I spent a lot of time writing about old boyfriends, which is fun, but there are everyday life stories, too. There's a song about my dad on there. It's really an album you can sing along to if you're flying out for work, or going out for the night - doesn't matter where you come from, or who you work for," she says.
We chat a bit about where she comes from, and about the small-town life on Chandrila she's suddenly traded in for brightly-colored costumes and hundred-meter-long stages on Coruscant. I ask her if her dad will be tagging along for the album's tour.
"He might!" she answers immediately with a fervent smile. "He might, but he might just not. He's very much a homebody with my mom. Chandrila is a very beautiful planet, so it's hard to get them out sometimes."
Vosh says that in addition to multiple stops on Coruscant and Chandrila, CrimsonStar management has tentative plans to hold a few shows in the Outer Rim, including on Jabiim.
"I'm very excited about the tour and for people to hear this album," Vosh says with a carefully-controlled bob of her blond waves. Still, it's hard to miss the gleam in her eye.
So I ask her, why this album, during this time? After all, the universe itself seems to be ripping at the seams, as galactic news stations toss out more and more war updates and endless crime footage for the masses to ruminate on.
People are more interested in violence, I tell her, than any sort of art.
She looks quietly to the side and falls silent for a moment, as if she's carefully considering her response.
"Um, I think music is more important than ever right now," she replies with a toss of her hair. "I think a lot of people feel uncertain…confused. There are definitely days I still feel bad when I think about the galaxy."
She shifts in her chair. "But if I can take that feeling - be honest about it and say, this is how I'm feeling today…it might help somebody else out there. And if you can take something like sadness and put a positive spin on it…put on a shiny dress and sing about it…I don't know. It makes it a little easier for me to deal with."
As we wrap up the interview and she is ushered away to go try on those shiny dresses, I bid her goodbye in the hotel lobby. She disappears with a friendly wave before she's overtaken by a team of people discussing her next look, where she'll take the stage in Coruscant tonight to celebrate that sad feeling with a thousand other people.
When I walk out in the street outside, squinting my eyes against the sun that's decided to peep down through the traffic lanes today, I think about what she's said.
I can't help but wonder if maybe she's right.
Low, the album, is out now.
Ling Ma-Deo is a Chiss reporter who has worked for Coruscant Life as a top contributor for twenty years. When he is not writing, he enjoys long walks in Coruscant’s Goa Park, where he enjoys being among the flora transplanted from many different worlds.
